To "Wild West Magazine" Re: Lakota-Schmakota

I have never subscribed to any of the "Wild West"/"True West" Magazines, but for the purposes of "The Smoke of the Sioux" I chose to pick up my first copies from the newstand and then subscribed with the enclosed subscription cards.

I was a little surprised to see the following sentences appear in the April 28, 2018 issue of Wild West:The American Frontier in a story titled "Conquering Bear's Short Reign."

The Lakotas passed the pipe and debated among themselves for long awkward minutes about this strange concept. At last a Yankton Chief stood, came forward and placed his stick in Conquering Bear's hand. One by one the others followed until he held all 24 sticks. Americans observing th eproceedings believed a Lakota "Senate" had just appointed a "president." The Lakotas believed they had designated Conquering Bear their temporary spokesman.

I was a little surprised on my first reading of this magazine to see the apparent inclusion of the Yankton into the Lakota grouping. It would be easy for someone upon reading this to assume that the Yankton are Lakota, rather than Nakota, and this can cause years of confusion for the reader.

The first post of "The Smoke of the Sioux" outlined the 7 Council Fires of the Great Sioux Nation and it is interesting that the Yankton , which are one of 2 branches of the Nakota, are considered to be at the same hierarchical level as the much more famous Lakota.

The Yanktonnais are the other branch of the Nakota and are also at the same hierarchical level as the Lakota.